Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Koreshi Chronicles – Chapter IV : Threads part 1

Henriette and Artoor Vovelle sat on their terrace sipping coffee; since their escape to Port Arthur, the Earther drink had become part of their new lifestyle. It was just one of many changes they had to adjust to, and, like coffee, not all of them were unpleasant.

Artoor was as much a social discontent in the Republic as his wife, but he could camouflage his musings as academic hypotheticals. He walked a fine line in his early career which always kept him sufficiently ambiguous to stay out of serious trouble. Henriette did not have that luxury; she could either help the Republic with their scientific research against her conscience or submit. The Republic never forgave her, as the regular attempts on her life attested to.

Her new protector, Colonel Arthur, and his forces asked her for scientific assistance as well, but she acted of her own free will and so far, their aims and hers aligned, keeping destructive new technologies out of polar hands. But this had put a strain on her marriage--Artoor had lost none of his cynicism and saw Port Arthur`s faults as easily as he had the Republic’s. Once again his balancing act was intellectually impressive. He could teach at the Officer Academy while questioning the morality of the very basis of Colonel Arthur’s military might: the GRELs. He frustrated not only the Academy but Henriette too. The arrogance displayed in his early cycles that had charmed her as an introverted young woman sometimes wore thin after all those years and smacked of selfishness in his autumn. But her frustration never festered; she knew that for all the grief he caused, he was simply a profoundly moral man and, despite his faults, it was this that kept her love alive.

She knew about his belief in the GREL independence, though she doubted the scientific feasibility of it. His goal was to find a practical way to further his ethical paradigms. That was what was at the heart of his interest in Sebastopol, though he couldn’t talk to her about it. They were comfortable, relatively safe, but had little privacy as a trade-off. She could no more share her work on Tantalus with him. They knew each other’s hearts as they did each other’s secrets. He was self-righteous, he was a flirt, and he was hard-headed but he was the love of her life and all through her troubled story, he was the one that kept her going.

“What is it babe?” Artoor asked, shaking Henriette from her thoughts. She found she had been staring at him distractedly. “I was just thinking that I love you, you old fool.” She said with a smile which had not changed over the cycles. He responded with his typical cocky grin, “Groovy babe, I love you too”.



Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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